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Thanks for the link. 

Intel offers "Thread building blocks", which can be very similar to Grand Central Dispatch if you use their analog of "blocks". If you don't use the blocks, you are back to square one, and have to write lots of code just to initialize stuff.

All in all, I like GCD better for its simplicity. GCD doesn't make the hard problems easy, but it does make the easy stuff trivial. Intel's Thread Building Blocks in contrast offer more control to experts, but a higher barrier of entry to newcomers. Intel urgently needs to rewrite their examples in the newer, simpler syntax; and they should offer a simplified scheduler just like Apple does with the prioritized queues.